A Short Sermon by a Layman
By H. F. Phelps
I HEARD a short sermon the other day, and I want to tell it to others. It was delivered on the cars. Returning from a visit to one of our churches, the train stopped at —, where there had been an organized church. Among the passengers that boarded the train was Brother —. As was natural, we began to talk about the past, and made inquiry for some with whom we had walked to the house of God in company. Some had moved to other places. Of one it was said that he was sometimes up, and sometimes down; of others, that they had gone back into the world. After a moment of silence, this brother laid his hand on my knee, and exclaimed: “I tell you what it is, Brother Phelps, when a man gives up family worship, he is gone!” With deep feeling he added: “It don’t seem to me that I could live if it were not for family worship.” Let these words be well considered, and ever remembered. In them is the sermon by a layman. They tell an everlasting truth. “When a man gives up family worship, he is gone.” And a9family that does not have family worship, does not live the life of the Christian. Let all beware how they neglect family worship. Nothing would please Satan better than for Seventh-day Adventists to give up family worship. It is the defeat of any man or woman who dares to do it.